Exercise Begins At 40, And Works

Yet more evidence that life is unfair: people who start exercising at 40 get the same long-term heart benefits as people who started at age 30. It’s outrageous, but true. A news release from the European Society of Cardiologists reports on a study of 40 healthy men (without cardiovascular risk factors) aged between 55 and 70 years. Ten of the men had never exercised for more than 2 hours a week throughout their lives, and 30 had exercised (either running or cycling) for at least 7 hours a week for over five years, either beginning before the age of 30 or after the age of 40. Those beginning before the age of 30 had been training for an average of 39 years (since the age of 22) and those starting at 40 for 18 years (since the age of 48). And now the news: when the researchers assessed the heart health of the men, they found that men in both exercise groups showed similar evidence of exercise-related improvements in heart structure and function (they also had much higher maximum oxygen uptake than those who didn’t exercise). Read more from the European Society of Cardiologists.